Henry Winkler is doing fantastic—not because he gets to play the hilarious and heartfelt acting teacher Gene Cousineau on HBO’s Barry, or because Arrested Development is back for a fifth season later this month, or because his show MacGyver was picked up for a third season, or because he’s writing a new children’s book series. It’s because he has a new dog.

“Her name is Sadie, she’s a labradoodle. She’s chocolate brown,” he coos over the phone. “It’s like having another child. When you go out, you’re having a good time, and suddenly you think ‘I need to be home. I need to hug that dog.’”

Maybe now you're thinking about how you know Winkler, what the one project of his is that stands out in your mind. Because you surely know Winkler from something. For a long time it was likely from Happy Days, where he charmed the world as the avatar of cool, the Fonz. Increasingly, lately, it’s probably from shows like Arrested Development, Parks & Recreation, Royal Pains, and now Barry. But Winkler has achieved the improbable task of not letting himself be defined by his biggest and most iconic role. There’s an entire generation who probably doesn’t know that “jumping the shark” was a thing that actually happened.

It would be easy for Winkler to want to distance himself from a character like the Fonz. Men his age have a tendency to seek out the serious, to want people to see them as a capital-a Actor. But there’s a lightness in Winkler’s voice, like he’s in awe that he’s even talking to you, like after 72 years he wakes up every morning shocked to find his dreams have come true. He says it’s because of three things: preparation, tenacity, and gratitude. Or maybe being Hollywood’s leading mensch just comes naturally to him. Either way, he says in a recent interview, he can’t wait to keep going.

GQ: Bill Hader mentioned he talks to you after every episode, and there's some stuff you're always surprised with. What did you think of Sunday’s episode?Henry Winkler: The way it ended? Oh my god. And I hadn’t seen 6, 7 or 8, so last night we had a panel at the TV Academy, and I saw 8. And I just kept going “Oh no! Oh! Oh my god, he’s not gonna—he did!” I don’t know what they wove, but I’m telling you, they wrote a cashmere sweater. And, I won’t tell you what is coming this week, but it turns last week on its head.

In Episode 7, I love that MacBeth is what was happening in the background, because that’s every theme in Barry. At first you think he’s forced to kill, but there are these deeper motivations.Everything that these guys write down is thought out. If they don’t know, they say "Okay, what would really happen when Sally goes for an audition? Would she become defiant?" And everyone in the room said, "No, she would apologize, make him feel better, and leave the room, and then just be destroyed by the man saying he’s not really representing her." Oh my god. But every detail they think out. It is so thoughtful. The people they picked, the ensemble, everyone is a home run hitter.

Is that what drew you when you first read the script?The first thing that drew me? They said Bill Hader. My wife and I have watched Bill Hader now for years. “Bill Hader?” “You’re on a short list.” “Short list? Is Dustin Hoffman on that short list? Because if Dustin Hoffman is on that short list I’m not going in.” And they said, "Why?" And I said, "Because he’s a movie star and he’s going to get it." They said "No, he’s not on the list" so I said "Okay! Send me the script!" My son happened to be here, Max. He’s a director, he just had a movie out called Flower with Zoe Deutch and Katherine Hahn. And he directed me in my audition. And he was very stern! I went, and then I got it. I didn’t know that other people thought the same way I did, that this was one of the best things they read in a long, long time.

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We went to see our good acquaintance John Lithgow on Broadway, he was doing a one-man show. It was brilliant! The man can do no wrong. And he said [speaks in a deep voice] “What are you doing?” And I said I’m doing a show called Barry, and we just shot it. And he said “I wanted that.” And I said "Oh my god, you did? Oh!" He wanted to be Cousinaeu.

This could have been such a stereotypical character. Everyone who’s been in a high school acting class knows a guy like that. But you’re not playing it flat and like comic relief. Like this love story. He could have been this blowhard drama teacher who flirts with everyone, but there’s emotion there.I think of the audition scene [at the beginning of Episode 4]. We shot the audition in the middle of the police station set, and they just put up some flats, and I did it twice, and then when I finished and walked away and knew I didn’t get it... it was amazing.

Is that depth something you were excited to bring to this character?I don’t know, because we read all the scripts, all in a row, so the entire ensemble is sitting around the table at Sony studios reading the scripts together. And then you don’t know how it’s going to fit together. You have two different shows here. You have the comedy of the acting class and the shoot-em-up. And the cast became close, but you started shooting and you didn’t see the rest of the cast. And it was like nine months until I saw them again and gave them a hug and said my god, I missed you!

But you do each scene as if it’s the only scene you’ve got, because you don’t know what will be cut, what doesn’t work, what really doesn’t fit. Because you think someone is important, and it goes flying out of the show like it is supersonic. It’s hard, and it’s harder for them, because of course I’m not there with the editing. The decision is in their hands, and every week I wait, and it’s amazing.

Here’s the truth—men at my age, men of age, sit waiting for the phone to ring. Or they’re calling their phone to find it to make it ring. And here I am, having this most extraordinary moment with Barry, and at the end of May with Barry Zuckercorn, and MacGyver was picked up for a third season. Holy moly. We’re writing a new children’s book series. Hank Zipzer is done, and now we have created a brand new series we’re writing for Abrams. Who would have thought?

When you started out, did you ever think you’d wind up at a point where you had so much going on at once?Never. You dream of it. It is a dream. What gets you here is tenacity, gratitude, and preparation. Sitting in this chair, talking to you, and knowing that you can deliver when the time comes, when that door opens you can walk through it and do it, but preparation, tenacity and gratitude will get you exactly where you want to be.

You need to write your own acting book called that.Ha! Did you always want to be a writer?

I did, I think. Though when I was very young I wanted to design circus tents. I went to the Big Apple circus and that’s what I walked away wanting to do.Oh! They’re colorful and big and inclusive and bringing people joy. That goes right in line with a thought I have. If the country is going to be great, everybody has a gift, and I tell every child I meet, whether they have asked me or not, “You have greatness inside you, and your job is to figure out what that is, dig it out, and give it to the world. Because the world needs everything, every one of you.” And if you went to the Big Apple and there was no tent, you’d be rained on watching the clowns!

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Is that a message you got when you were growing up?No. It’s a message that I understand people need to hear. That shows how presumptuous I am. It’s a message I needed to hear. What I heard is that I was stupid. What I heard is that I would never achieve. What I heard was that it is my duty to take over the family business, and not live my dream. And here we are talking.

You have these two characters, Gene and Barry, that people are really in love with. Is there anything you want to do with them in their next seasons?You know? I don’t think about that ever. What I think about is, can I take what they’ve written, can I tell the story and be as entertaining as I possibly can be? That is the thought that I have. And we were all together this year in Arrested Development. In year four, I did scenes with light stands. Jessica Walters was a light stand with a piece of tape on it because nobody was in the same place at the same time.

Right, and there was also the episode structure that was one at a time.The structure came from the fact that everybody was busy and nobody could be there at the same time. This year, everybody was in the room at the same moment. Jason Bateman, talking about baseball—I don’t even understand baseball but he loves baseball. We were just all there, it was heavenly. Oh my god, am I having a good time.

And how’s MacGyver doing?When they rebooted it, it was in my contract to be part of the series. I was supposed to be in name only, but I get along so well with the man who runs it, Peter Lenkov, that I go in and edit the show with him. We sit in the room and have a fabulous time together. It was picked up for a third season, so I’m doing nothing but saying thank you, thank you lord. A lot of shows never get to the third season. There’s an alchemy [to making a TV show] I don’t even get after all of these years. It’s a miracle! All you can do is the best that you can bring to the moment, that day, on the show. And everything else, you just have to let it melt into the cosmos. You have no control.

So, did you know that if you Google your name, the first photo that shows up is still the Fonz?No! I’m so proud of him. He put a roof over my head. You know how great the Fonz is? You know how loyal he is? He watches Barry. Isn’t that amazing. He still uses an antenna—I built a little house on the back of our property, he fixes the cars, and comes in on Sundays to report on what he thought of the episode.

Does he miss Milwaukee?You know what, he doesn’t. Because the thing is, you don’t know this about the Fonz, he’s actually a wimp in the snow. He’s cool until he sees the first snowflake. And then he goes right to his condo in Palm Beach.

Fonzie was such an iconic character. I had a friend who posted a photo on Facebook the other day, he was visiting Milwaukee and had his arm around the Fonz statue.Holy mackerel! Come on, for a minute, Jaya! I’ve got a statue! Can you come on. I went there to unveil it, with the cast, and people send me pictures standing next to him, dressing him up. He has been a fan of every football team in the country. They’ve put colors around him. He’s a cheesehead sometimes. Amazing.

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Now there’s this whole generation who grew up on Arrested Development who knows you as Barry Zuckercorn, and has probably never seen Happy Days. Is that weird to you?No. It feels lucky to me. It feels blessed to me. Because I go to comic cons and people come up and they say “You’re the reason I ride a motorcycle, you’re the reason I became a mechanic.” And there are people who love Scream, and The Waterboy, Royal Pains, Parks & Rec, Arrested Development. And now Barry. And then there are kids who only know me as an author. I had a dream, and I’m living it.

You mentioned that you couldn’t have imagined you’d get to this point, but what was your dream?When I was lying in bed in New York City on 78th Street, on the West Side, on the 10th floor, and I would dream, I would ache—can I be a professional actor? Will I ever earn a living? And I’d dream up stunts. I’d see myself running across cars in order to get away from the bad guy, and using them as a bridge to get from one side of the avenue to the other. I’d lie awake, I’d eat my cereal, I would shower, I would walk, I would tell anybody that would listen [speaks in high-pitched voice] “I really want to be an actor.” And here I am.

Tenacity, preparation, and gratitude!You can get so hurt or angry by rejection in the world, and the fact is that you cannot take it as that. You can’t take it that they are rejecting your being. They might have a cousin, they might have someone who’s better, they might have somebody they see in their mind and you’re not it. But you bounce back and you say, "Okay I’m not going to work for you, I’m going down the street and I’m going to work for them."

I’m sure you know this, but you have a reputation as an incredibly nice person.Here’s the thing: I don’t think about being a good guy or a nice fellow or whatever. I just am grateful to be on the fucking earth. I am grateful that I’m looking out, and the Fonz built this house, and I have three incredible children, and a wonderful wife, and five grandchildren. And Sadie. She’ll melt your heart! She just looks up at you with those eyes, and they’re so tiny, oh my god.

Obviously life can be hard, but that feeling of gratitude can be so easy to lose.One of the things I say to young actors is get an extra pillow. Because when you come home, and you have been rejected, and you think “Oh my god my audition could not have been better, what is going on with the universe?” you take out your extra pillow and beat the shit out of your bed. You have to become an empty vessel, you have to get it all out, so when you go to your next audition, when you meet a friend, you’re not carrying that burden of rage. It hurts you. That is the clearest way to say it, every meaning you can give to hurt happens.

Is there any role you haven’t played yet that you want?I would like to play someone who’s mute. I don’t know why. That has been in my imagination for years. I would like to play a character and see if I can do it with never saying a word.

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Do you think that has to do with dyslexia and your relationship to language?It may very well. I never put them together but I will now think about it! I don’t know. All I know is the challenge of being complete with no words. It would force me to just be.

I’m impressed that you managed to escape the Fonz trap. So many people would have been totally defined by being the Fonz forever, and wouldn’t be able to get out of it.That’s part of the tenacity, because that happens. People say “Wow he is so great, isn’t he a lovely guy, he’s so funny—but he was the Fonz, so... next.” And that went on for at least nine years. I did not want to be a flash in the pan, that just wasn’t an option. So I started producing, and I started directing, and then there was a time when someone said I should write books for children about my learning challenge... and we’ve written 30 novels together. Isn’t this nice? Isn’t this like we’re just having a conversation?

It is! Interviewing can be very nervewracking. You never know what’s going to happen.But that separates the girls from the women, the professionals from the wannabe. That exactly, it is your ability to keep the flow going like you’re the river. But that nervousness happens to me with music stars. I get tongue tied. I’m like a 12 year old girl.

When has that happened to you?Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Sia, Bruno [Mars]. My god, I walked up to Mick Jagger once. I walk up to him at Nobu. We’ve been going there for 35 years, so it’s like family, and I walk in and [whispers] it’s Mick Jagger. I say “Oh Mick, how are you, like 20 years ago I met you on a plane.” And he looked up at me and went “Henry.” And I’m like, "Oh my god I’m so sorry, I’m going to slink out of the restaurant now, I’m going to crawl on my belly, I didn’t mean to interrupt you." Not a hello! Not a nice to see you! And as I walked out there was this table of young executives who said “You just talked to Mick Jagger!” And I said, “Well, in a way. It was not exactly what I thought.”

What about musicians gets you so flustered?You know that genie where you get three wishes? One that has never changed for me is I would like to sing, and move an audience through song. Sia can do that. Bruno can do that. I met Bruno while I was doing Sirius radio. There’s a glass enclosure where you have a town hall, and there’s an audience. And he walked outside, and I jumped from the microphone and shouted "That’s Bruno!" And now I have an autographed picture of Bruno Mars.

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